August 08, 2002
A thin piece of plastic

Readers of this page will probably remember the trouble I am having with my eyes. Since April, I've struggling with my eyes due to keratoconus and the fit of my special contact lenses. By wearing the ill-fitting lenses, I got a corneal ulcer on my left eye that took a few weeks to heal.

The company that makes the special lenses I wear stopped production at about the same time. I never got a straight answer why they stopped production. When I finally got a new set of lenses in the first week of July after a three month wait, they didn't fit. This was a 'very bad thing' because it meant I was going to have to order new lenses once again. Now I'm told that they may have them by the end of the month. End of the month? That's a two month wait and there's no guarantee that these will fit either.

Since April, I've been functioning only seeing out of my right eye. Glasses can't correct my problems. I can wear glasses for a short one to two hours before I start getting a headache. It's pretty much impossible for me to wear the glasses for an entire day. I've tried, and it just doesn't work. Driving with my glasses is dangerous at best. I done it a few times to the supermarker a quarter mile away, but I would never try it on the freeway.

Seeing the world out of one eye is a pain, but not impossible. Half of the world is blurry to me. I have to be extra careful driving due to my reduced field of vision and the lack of good depth perception.

The real worry to me is if I lose or damage the contact in my right eye. If I can't wear that contact, I effectively become blind. I wouldn't be able to drive. I would barely be able to use a computer for more than an hour. Work would very tough If I couldn't see for much of the day. While many others in the world have much larger crosses to bear, not being able to see clearly would have a huge impact on my life.

So it's all down to a thin piece of plastic. As long as I can still put the plastic contact in my eye, I can function in the modern world. If something happens to that contact and I can't wear it, my life will grind to a complete halt. What would I tell work? I can't come to work because I'm blind?

Until the new lenses arrive, I simply have to have faith that the lens will last. Faith in a thin piece of plastic.

Posted by michael at August 08, 2002 08:34 PM